Dubai’s biggest real estate developer, Emaar, will sell its online fashion platform Namshi to e-commerce giant Noon for $335.2 million.
According to Emaar's statement that was issued on Friday evening to the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the company's board of directors has in principle approved the sale of its subsidiary Emaar Malls’ e-commerce unit Namshi to Noon, subject to the approval of Noon’s board of directors. And the DFM has suspended trading on the company's shares until clarifications are received about the results of its board of directors meeting.
"Detailed information will be disclosed once the approvals of Noon's board is received formally," Ahmad Thani Rashed Al Matrooshi, an Emaar board member, said in the statement.
It's worth noting that in 2021, Namshi was the second largest e-commerce player in the UAE (Amazon was first) with net sales of $249 million, while Noon, which is backed by Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), ranked third with net sales of $169 million, data from ecommerceDB shows. And according to the Department of Economic Development, licences issued by Dubai soared 63% in the H1 of 2021.
If these numbers were to imply anything, it would be that the UAE has been witnessing a significant boom in online shopping which was accelerated further by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emaar, Namshi, and Noon
In 2017, Emaar first acquired a 51% stake in Namshi for $151 million from Rocket Internet’s Global Fashion Group. Later on, the company acquired the remaining stake for $129.5 million.
It's worth noting prior to Namshi's acquisition, the real estate giant wanted to acquire Souq.com. However, the e-commerce platform was eventually sold to Amazon for $580 million.
After Souq.com was sold to Amazon, Mohamed Alabbar launched the $1billion e-commerce platform, Noon, backed up by the PIF in 2017.
